iStockphoto / freie-kreation
It’s hard to really put into words how impressive the waves were last Saturday at Pe’ahi (aka Jaws) in Maui. The conditions were perfect and it led to some of the biggest waves anyone’s seen in Hawaii for years.
I threw up an article on Monday showcasing some of the biggest waves surfed but new footage has since emerged of Makua Rothman’s potentially record-setting wave. Some people are estimating that the wave was 100-foot-tall which would make it a potential new world record and obviously the tallest wave ever surfed in Hawaii.
It really is pretty difficult for me to wrap my mind around how massive this wave is and how surfing has progressed to a point where dudes are riding waves the size of stadiums. I’ve never seen anything like this close-up. The biggest waves I’ve ever witnessed were in Portugal and the biggest waves I’ve ever been crushed by were in Costa Rica and all of them pale in comparison to this absolute ripper. Check it out. You can see his wave around the 3:05 mark in the first YouTube video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKPUu9HBgRZ/
Makua was the 2014/2015 WSL Big Wave champion back when they had a separate tour specifically for big wave surfing. He’s been one of the sport’s best big wave surfers for most of his life. And even he said last weekend he said he ‘rode the biggest waves of my life’ so if it’s him saying it then we should probably believe him, right?
Measuring the height of waves can be a difficult task and it’ll take some time to figure out whether or not this was a certified world record as the tallest wave ever surfed but I think we can say for certain that it’s amongst the largest ever ridden, and it seems quite likely that this was the tallest wave ever surfed in Hawaii if not the world.